Technical Abstract:
The “Wildfires and Invasive Plants in American Deserts” symposium and workshop, was held in Reno, Nevada on December 9-11, 2008. The purpose of this symposium was to synthesize the current understanding of the interactions of wildfire and invasive plants in the four U.S. deserts and the Colorado Plateau and develop strategies to better address this issue. Key recommendations from conference are: I. Hot Desert Fire and Invasive Species Management Workshop 1)Improve coordination and prioritization strategies to address invasive plants and fires. 2)Consistent long-term funding is needed to treat, monitor, and conduct needed research. II. Cold Desert Fire and Invasive Species Management Workshop 1) Improve science, public education, and coordination to reduce wildfire-invasive impacts. 2) Establish priority areas for fuels, restoration, and fire rehabilitation treatments. III. Effective Invasive Plants Management Workshop 1) People will have to be persistent in applying treatments to keep pace with invasives. 2) Bureaucratic impediments and biases must be removed and science applied for success. IV. Fuels Management at the Landscape Scale Workshop 1) Plan, implement, and collaborate with all stakeholders to implement fuels treatments 2) Fuels management planning must be at the landscape level to address large fires. V. Wildfire Rehabilitation and Restoration Workshop 1) Amend guidance to improve the linkage between policy and implementation of treatments. Detailed recommendations and next steps will be consolidated and published in a special issue of Rangelands, 31: 2-35 that will be published in June 2009.